Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh, Enny Nurbaningsih, Arief Hidayat presiding over a judicial review hearing of the Election Law, Monday (10/23/2023). Photo by MKRI/Panji.

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JAKARTA (MKRI) — Another judicial review hearing of Article 414 paragraph (1) of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) was held by the Constitutional Court (MK) on Monday, October 23, 2023. Through legal counsel Muhammad Yuntri, the Petitioner of case No. 124/PUU-XXI/2023 conveyed the revisions to the petition.

Yuntri said that the Petitioner’s profile, the elaboration of the Court’s authority, and the Petitioner’s argument on the petition being not ne bis in idem (with past, similar petitions), and the Petitioner’s argument on the parliamentary threshold being a form of party simplification had been revised.

“For this petition, the petitum is that the Petitioner requests that the Court declare Article 414 paragraph (1) of Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding if not interpreted as, ‘A political party contesting in an election must reach the electoral threshold, which is 4% (four percent) of the national number of valid votes or 4% (four percent) of the number of DPR seats, in order to be included in the seat allocation for DPR members,’” he said before Constitutional Justices Daniel Yusmic P. Foekh, Arief Hidayat, and Enny Nurbaningsih in one of the panel courtrooms.

Also read: Ummat Party Challenges Parliamentary Threshold

Ummat Party’s central executive board, represented by Ridho Ramhadi (chairman) and A. Muhajir (secretary-general), petitions Article 414 paragraph (1) of Law No. 7 of 2017 on General Elections (Election Law) against Article 1 paragraph (3), Article 22E paragraph (1), and Article 28D paragraph (1) of 1945 Constitution.

Article 414 paragraph (1) of the Election Law reads, “A political party contesting in a legislative election must reach the electoral threshold, which is 4% (four percent) of the national number of valid votes, in order to be included in the seat allocation for DPR members.”

At the preliminary hearing for case No. 124/PUU-XXI/2023 on Tuesday, October 10, legal counsel Muhammad Yuntri said Ummat Party has passed verification and is a legitimate participant in the 2024 Election. However, based on the elections in 1999, 2004, 2014, and 2019, it has no seats in the House of Representatives (DPR). Because the Ummat Party did not engage in the discussion of the Election Law, it was barred from submitting a petition against the Election Law to the Constitutional Court.

In this case, Ummat Party questions the 4% threshold set for the DPR seats in the current Election Law. One of the Petitioner’s legal counsels Muhammad Yuntri said that the parliamentary thresholds set for the previous elections were 2% in 1999; and 3% for DPR and 4% for Provincial DPRD in the 2004 Election, in which 24 political parties participated. Meanwhile, in the 2009 Election, which was based on Law No. 10 of 2008 on General Elections of Members of DPR and DPRD, the threshold was 2.5% of the total number of national valid votes.

The Petitioner argues that the threshold for political parties to be included in the allocation of the DPR seat as stipulated in Article 414 paragraph (1) of the Election Law is not only based on the acquisition of national valid votes. They believe that the accumulation of DPR seat acquisition of all electoral districts (dapil) must also be included since the “price” for a seat in electoral districts outside of the Java Island is lower than that inside Java. This system is another form of fair guarantee for a more proportional election as mandated by the Constitution.

Therefore, the Ummat Party requests the Court to declare Article 414 paragraph (1) of Election Law unconstitutional and not legally binding if not interpreted as, “A political party contesting in an election must reach the electoral threshold, which is 4% (four percent) of the national number of valid votes or 4% (four percent) of the number of DPR seats, in order to be included in the seat allocation for DPR members.” 

Author       : Sri Pujianti
Editor        : Nur R.
PR            : Raisa Ayuditha
Translator  : Yuniar Widiastuti (NL)

Disclaimer: The original version of the news is in Indonesian. In case of any differences between the English and the Indonesian versions, the Indonesian version will prevail.

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